Morsmordre

"Then he realised it was a colossal skull, comprised of what looked like emerald stars, with a serpent protruding from its mouth like a tongue. As they watched, it rose higher and higher, blazing in a haze of greenish smoke, etched against the black sky like a new constellation."

Contents

History

First Wizarding War

In the First Wizarding War, Morsmordre became something of a signature move for the Death Eater organisation in general[1]. Upon committing murder, they would cast it over the locations of their crimes; this led to the wizarding community fearing the Mark's appearance, as it would usually mean death would be found where it was present[1].

After Voldemort's first defeat, the Mark became absent; the method by which it was cast was known only by the innermost circle of Death Eaters, and as most of them were either being rounded up, killed or forced into hiding, nobody saw the sign for some time[1].

1994

The Dark Mark over the Quidditich World Cup.

Barty Crouch Junior witnessed Death Eaters torturing the Roberts family for entertainment, which awakened him from the Imperius Cursehis father placed on him. He took Harry Potter's wand, which was sticking out of the boy's pocket in front of him, and cast the curse to set off the Dark Mark during the 1994Quidditch World Cup, in order to scare the Death Eaters there for being disloyal to Voldemort. This caused mass panic to both the audience and Death Eaters alike, causing the former to run around in hysteria and the latter to Disapparate in fear of facing their master's wrath.

At first, the house-elfWinky was blamed for the act due to the culprit wand was found in her possession and the record showed it had performed the curse. Much later, the truth was revealed by Crouch himself under the influence of Veritaserum. The Dark Mark's appearance over the campsite was a huge scandal amongst the British magical community, and many citizens filed various complaints to the Ministry.

Voldemort would later comment on Lucius Malfoy fleeing at the sight of the mark as a sign of disloyalty when Lucius was hastily making poor excuses.

1996

Igor Karkaroff was killed in 1996 by Death Eaters for betraying Lord Voldemort, and the Dark Mark was cast over the shack in which his body was found.

Etymology

The incantation of this spell appears to be derived from the French mort, "death", and mordre, "to bite". This alludes to the name of Voldemort's followers, the Death Eaters. The English word murder could also contribute. The literal translatio of the Norwegian word "morsmodre" would be "mothers killers".

It may also be a reference to the word "mord", which means "murder" in Icelandic, German, Norwegian, Danish Polish and Swedish, since the spell is cast after someone has been murdered, and sounds like "mass murder".

In the book version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the Dark Mark was cast over the Quidditch World Cup by Barty Crouch Jr. with Harry's wand in order to strike fear at disloyal Death Eaters during their torturing of the Roberts family. However, in the film adaption, the Mark was cast by his own wand after the Death Eaters destroyed the campsite, as a sign of the Death Eaters' works.

References

↑Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Chapter 4 (Horace Slughorn) - Dumbledore notes that the Dark Mark had not been cast when Slughorn faked his death and Slughorn stated that he knew he had forgotten something. This might suggest that he knew how to cast the spell.